2, More Perspective: You will get no argument about the humbling nature of baseball from Russell Wilson and Shaq Thompson. Wilson, starting at quarterback as an NFL rookie with the Seahawks, hit .229 in two seasons in the Colorado Rockies farm system (including 2010 with Tri-City in the Northwest League). Thompson, a starting safety as a true freshman at Washington, may have set some sort of record for utter futility by going 0-for-39 (!) with 37 strikeouts (!!) this summer during his abbreviated pro baseball debut with Boston's Rookie league team in Florida.

3, Fear Fehr: Donald Fehr, the only egomaniac so uncaring about fans, sports and America that he managed to get a World Series cancelled when he was running the baseball players union, seems determined to force a lockout now that he's driving the NHL players union bus off a cliff. The man has no shame. Or common sense. Or dignity.

4, Watch Out: That's three WSU basketball recruits in two years who failed to qualify academically on Ken Bone's watch. Bone's old Portland State team is still trying to recover from NCAA sanctions incurred due to academic shortcomings under Bone.

5, Two Good: Call me a dinosaur — my softball teammates do — but I remain convinced that the vast majority of athletes benefit physically and mentally from playing more than one sport through high school. Found it interesting that big-time college golf prospects Derek Bayley and Sierra Bezdicek recently won Pacific Northwest Amateur Public Links titles, then practiced the next day with their high school football and soccer teams, respectively. Derek is the starting quarterback at Lakeland in

6, Betcha Didn't Know: Amos Alonzo Stagg, a Basketball and College Football Hall of Famer, made the first college All-America football team, played in the first public basketball game and invented the baseball batting cage. He was the head football, track, baseball and/or basketball coach at the U of Chicago from 1892-1932. The man coached college football for 69 straight years (sometimes as an assistant) before retiring at 96.